Observe The Banana

Here is a nice tribute to bananas I came across on YouTube. Some cool, fun images here. Enjoy!

We read that iron added to fortified cereal is usually in the form of actual iron filings, which your body may not even be able to use. A box of Mini Wheats I recently purchased had an unusually large amount of crumbled cereal in it (over 4 cups!).

After calling for a coupon for a replacement box, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to do some kitchen science and try to find these iron filings.
First we tried grind up the crumbs in a mortar and pestle.

We then  tried putting strong magnets in the powder. While some stuck, it was not clear if it was just stickiness and not magnetism, and it sure didn’t look like iron.

We then added water to make a slurry.

Needs more water.

Tried a stack of little rare earth magnets, but still nothing conclusive. We did see some movement in the liquid  when we passed the magnet over the liquid (but could not capture it with the camera), so we were on the right track, but still not satisfied.

Time for the big guns. Out with the blender and more crumbs.
Reduced crumbs to finer powder and added a generous helping of RO water.

Poured into a little plastic container and applied magnet to the outside of the container. After sloshing and stirring around a bit we began to see a dark blob form on the inside of the container against the magnet.

The blob is made up of small particles and moves with the magnet. Iron!




A little careful arrangement of magnet, camera and window light and (despite imperfect macro focus) we are finally able to clearly see the spiky little iron filings standing up on the side of the container.

Yummmm . . . enjoy your breakfast.

I have just finished reading a kind of unusual book called “The Art Of Racing In The Rain” by Garth Stein. I suppose you could say it is a book about life, love, family and overcoming hardships and surviving to see better times. Frankly I do not usually enjoy books about heartbreaking family struggles, but this one had two very interesting features that made it quite enjoyable to read. First, the entire story-line is framed around professional race car driving. Using the challenge of completing a difficult race both as a metaphor for making it through life’s troubles, and as a real and practical connection between how the skills and strategies one uses to be a successful race car driver can be applied to the rest of their life. Also included are some wonderful emotive descriptions of the thrill of high speed track driving that should connect with anyone with even a mild love of driving. The second interesting feature of this book is that it is told entirely from the point of view of a dog named Enzo (as in Ferrari). A smart and aware dog that observes and understands what is going on around him (sometimes better than his human counterparts) but is hindered by his frustrating lack of the power to speak (and lack of thumbs), which prevents him from sharing his insights and guidance with his people. Even though Enzo’s intelligence may (or may not) be unrealistically high for a dog, the character is still very much a real dog, and not anthropomorphized into being too human, as some children’s books might do. Like all of us, even the dog in this story has life lessons to learn, as he prepares himself for what he is sure will be his eventual reincarnation into a man. The author does an excellent job of using Enzo as an outside observer to present commentary on the events of the story, while offering some wonderful philosophy of life from a dog’s eye view.

First paragraph:

“Gestures are all I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature. And while I occasionally step over the line and into the world of the melodramatic, it is what I must do in order to communicate clearly and effectively. In order to make my point understood without question. I have no words I can rely on because, much to my dismay, my tongue was designed long and flat and loose, and therefore, is a horribly ineffective tool for pushing food around my mouth while chewing, and an even less effective tool for making clever and complicated polysyllabic sounds that can be linked together to form sentences.”

Getting to go a drive on the track:

“One bark means slower, two means faster, got it?”
I barked twice, and that surprised him and Pat an Jim, who were both leaning in the passenger window. “He wants to go faster already,” Jim said. “You’ve got yourself a good dog there.”
[...]
“You okay?” he asked, looking at me as we sped nearly one hundred twenty miles per hour down the back straight’
I barked twice.
“I’m gonna use up my tires if you keep me out here,” he said. “One more lap.”
Yes, one more lap. One more lap. Forever, one more lap. I live my life for one more lap. I give my life for one more lap! Please, God, please give me one more lap!
And that lap was spectacular…

A little philosophy on attitude:

“That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me.”

Here is a wonderful banana sighting from Japan. Dole has started an ad campaign there featuring a Bananaman who sprouts CGI bananas from his head and hands and even shoots bananas from his nose to cheer up sad women in the park.  Bananas consumption has apparently surged in Japan with the popularity of “The Morning Banana Diet” and Dole has decided to capitalize on the trend with these bizarre commercials. Hey maybe this guy should try to get a job at Dole? Enjoy the Banana filled goodness below.

[Consumerist]

Electron Love

ohm-my, I find you so irresistible,
I just don’t know watt to do,
Currently I ampere in your power.
You act so coil,
to induce me into your field,
its beyond my capacity to avoid.
please integrate me into your circuit,
I won’t be a load.
don’t leave me feeling like a dip.
Without you I could just diode
I know I am biased,
but you look so farad to me.
I just want to volt you all night,
and cuddle you in my armature.
You complete my circuit.
I’m not interested in your transistor,
don’t even want to meter,
I only have polarize for you.
How can I cell you on the idea,
the potential is there.
I need to switch you over.
Please don’t tune me out.
I can’t stand your impedance,
you know we were meant tube.
How can I bridge the gap?
How can I amplify my signal?
Help me rectify the situation.
There is nothing to sine,
just a wave will do.

A pun poem by ObserveTheBanana. Inspired by Breakfast Blues, by Trout Fishing in America.

My son B drew this funny little cartoon depicting the elderly iPod Nano telling the new youngin’ Touch how it was back in the day . . .

This was on the envelope containing my amazing new robot bookmarks which I will have to scan and share another day.

Pi day (March 14 or 3/14) rapidly approaches once again. Last year we celebrated with . . . a pie. This year we are going to be in Minneapolis for my son B to play in a state piano competition, so I was not sure how we would recognize the day short of buying some pie. But now, salvation! Make: TV is having a Make: Day at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  We are SO there. As a subscriber to Make magazine, and the Make philosophy I often lament that all of the Maker Faire events take place in far off Texas or California, so I am very pleased to be able to attend a Make event right here in my home state of Minnesota, and even on a day when I will be driving to the Twin Cities anyway.

Celebrate the ingenuity and inventiveness in our community. Make: television, Geek Squad® and the Science Museum of Minnesota join forces to create a new event giving local engineers, artists, tinkerers and inventors the opportunity to showcase their DIY creations to museum visitors.

This family-friendly event features arts, electronics, musical performances, green technology, crafting and more!

Happy Pi Day!

The Many Faces of March 14

I was a little skeptical at first, but after watching it I couldn’t describe it any better than my brother did when he sent me the link:
“Ah, Sheesh . . . I laughed, I cried . .. its the feel-good hit of the year . . . if you’re a sucker for schmaltz . . . you’ll not regret investing the 16 min!”

Watch it with someone you love. Try to spread a little happiness to everyone you meet.

“You paid for parking . . . for me?”

Another joke from the mind of B:

What do you call a role playing game that moves around and changes a lot?
.
.
.
.
ADHD&D !

The students at Ohio Northern University put together an ice cream serving system with two Kuka robots and an Allen Bradley Micrologic 1500 PLC. While this kind of educational automation project may be common in university robot labs across the country, being a big fan of both ice cream and robots I thought I would give a nod to these students’ excellent work. They report that it took 26 students and 5 weeks to fabricate the system including writing all of the code and machining custom effectors. It takes 2 minutes to serve a cup of ice cream complete with spoon and toppings of choice. The students did not want to speed up this cycle time so the user could enjoy “an experience watching the system” and not just get fast ice cream. A nice touch is the way the robot arm moves a little, then lowers the cup under the soft serve machine to produce a nicely shaped point on the top of the ice cream serving. Watch it in action below.

[Dvice via TechEBlog]

. . . or better parenting through Unix. My son B really got a kick out of this xkcd comic:

So now I have learned to put the concept to good use:

Me: Time to brush your teeth and get ready for bed

B: No, I’m reading

Me: SUDO, brush your teeth.

B: Okay! (jumps up and runs upstairs.)

Works great for now, at least until the novelty wears off in a few days.

Every year the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) holds a student film festival (video making contest) they call the UMMys. The entrants vary widely in quality and subject matter and tend to include a lot of teen angst and zombies. Several years ago one entrant stood head and (large metallic) shoulders above the rest. It was called “Rumspringa! The Musical” and was about an amish girl going on her traditional rumspringa to the city and falling in love with a recently unemployed phone answering robot. All songs are written (except the Electric Slide) and performed by the students and it is clever, funny and totally worth watching, cheesy robot costume and all.   Sadly the entire 30 minute production appears to no longer be available on YouTube, but two of the best (IHMO) musical numbers from it are still available for your viewing pleasure.

Your robot overlords command you to click the play buttons below…










Every film needs an internet trailer…..

[Rumspringa! The Musical on MySpace]

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
A strange and wonderful book about two men trying to create a network of free wireless internet access across the city using found electronics. Only one of the men has a father who is a mountain and a mother who is a washing machine. “My father kept a roof over our head, and my mother kept our clothes clean”. One of his brothers is an island, while three others are Russian nesting dolls, and yet another can see the future. Perhaps all an elaborate strange metaphor about family history and family dynamics, it is also about trying to fit in the world when you leave home, while dealing with the family baggage you carry with you. Manages to nail that strange conflict of forces in an outsider who looks down with disdain on society, while at the same time wishing they just knew how to fit in.
One odd bit of business in this book is that the sons in this family each go by a variety of names, differentiated only by beginning letter. The text will switch names for the same person multiple times in a paragraph, or even mid sentence.  As in something like, “Adam walked into the room and said hi to Daniel. Hi Able, says David, How are you Devon, said Adric.” Presumably a statement on self identity which I never exactly nailed down.
An excellent, compelling, and sometimes a bit disturbing read which left me with a lot to think about. Also available as Creative Commons free download. Read it!

My Favorite Record by Asylum Street Spankers

I have really been enjoying this awesome bizarre CD. Hard to classify the genre really. It’s jazz, it’s swing, it’s blues, and throw in some mountain music and a bit of good rock and roll and you almost have it covered. Great high quality music spiced with wonderful crazy weird funky lyrics – its a win all the way. One favorite lyric that sticks in my head: “I kiss you through the screen door on a submarine, if you promise you’ll stop eating all the cat food…”.
Sadly it looks like it is out of print, but Amazon has some used CD available, grab em up! Or you can download the title song “My Favorite Record” as an MP3. A wonderful genre spanning homage to that old favorite record you play over and over again to keep you heading the right direction on life’s rails.

Check it out!

“Large 1970s banana-shaped resin floor lamp by Louis Durot, with one light.”

Over at 1stdibs.com they are selling a giant banana lamp from the 1970’s. At close to 7ft tall this is one serious banana to have in your house. I want it. They won’t even show the price without registering and logging in first, and there is shipping from France.

[1stdibs via BoingBoing]

This guy has redirected the water output from a jetski through nozzles on a jetpack. This is an amazingly awesome idea that I am surprised no one else had come up with yet (or had they?). I think you could do the same thing on land using a firehose or some other high pressure water source. This video makes it look like SO MUCH FUN, a jet pack that doesn’t run out in 30 seconds. Who cares if you can only go 25 feet high or so.





[ Reddit via Crunchgear]

A game review by B

Ben 10 Protector of the Earth

This game could have been so much more, but it seems almost like a feeble attempt to capitalize on the TV show. The menu looks great, but I wish I could operate it with the buttons and the D-pad, not just the stylus. The music, however, is flawless. It perfectly captures the mood of the moment.  In addition, it has a feature I value very much- 3 save slots!  One feature which it has is  just weird, attaching the silhouette of an alien of your choice to a save.  Ok…

The game play itself seems like it could be in an arcade without much change. And that’s a bad thing.  It’s chock full of side-scrolling “run to the right-fight some bad guys-run to the right-jump-use special power-fight more bad guys” action.  Each alien has a special power that lets you deal with a certain environmental challenge.  I assume this is supposed to make you change aliens so everyone is used, but sometimes all it really does is slow you down.  However, in combat the difference in attacks is wonderfully fun. It really makes combat with different characters a pleasure, except for the fact you have almost no long-range attacks, and a lot of the enemies do. And once you learn how to do the combos, combat becomes even more fun.  The platforming elements are strangely fun as well. By strangely, I mean they aren’t too well thought out, but they’re still fun.

The bosses are either very hard, pretty easy, or needing a gimmick.  Most of them are pretty easy to beat if you stand right next to them.  But you can’t block their shots, and sometimes they attack with a short-range attack and send you flying backwards.  Killing them often requires a specific alien.

The combos are hard to pull off.  They have a small window of effectiveness, except for the A-A ones.           Each alien has three combos: A-Y(almost impossible, the cheapest), A-X(easier, more expensive), and A-A(easiest, costs the most).  I’ve yet to get the hang of them.  In addition, the difference between characters is extreme.  They all attack with different speed and strength.

This game is good if you are an avid fan of platformers, but it needs some polish.  In order to fully enjoy the game, you need to know about the show, and accept the comic-book-like story.  It would be worth it used, but not new.

Firefighters: Flaming Squirrel To Blame In Jones Wildfire

I guess I could come up with some clever joke about swishy homosexual squirrels starting wildfires, but I think the headline speaks for itself. Actually I was at first picturing a squirrel with fur ablaze in flame running though the tall grass leaving a trail of fire, but alas it is not quite so interesting with it merely dropping to the ground after being electrocuted by touching two power lines. But the good news is, it seems to have boosted the educational level of the local kids:

Students Moved From Elementary To High School

I know, wildfires aren’t funny – so stop chuckling ok?

The story:

JONES, Okla. — A squirrel caught fire, sparking a blaze Wednesday morning that resulted in the evacuation of an elementary school in Jones, fire officials said.

Investigators said the squirrel touched two power lines at the same time and fell to the ground near Britton and Hiawassee roads.

That fire burned 5 acres in the Jones area, forcing the evacuation of the elementary school. Those students were taken to Jones High School.

Remember this fun viral video of the guy doing his goofy dance around the world? Put a smile on my face.



You can learn more about the original project at Where The Hell Is Matt? And see his dance videos from other years.
Now some clever person has extended the meme into the world of video games. I like the wide scope of the games, from Frogger to World of Warcraft. Enjoy!



[WeGame via BoingBoing]

Here is another video of some amazing maintenance workers / daredevils.  These men maintenance live high voltage power lines from a helicopter using a fire retardant “hot suit” made with metal fibers to act as a Faraday cage. Once they clamp on the line, their body, and the entire helicopter, are raised to the same electrical potential as the wire – 500 thousand volts. They remain safe as long as there is no path to ground. Even without the high voltage, just stepping off a hovering helicopter on to a little seat on the top of a pair of relatively thin wires strung high over the ground is quite a bold feat in itself. Nice mellow video, pleasant music and the guy has a sense of humor about it.

“I don’t give two hoots and a holler about flying inside a helicopter. Put me outside, that’s where I want to be. On a magic carpet.”

via [BoingBoing]

Video reported to be from Straight Up: Helicopters in Action.

The sea has taken everything.

But when much is taken, something is returned . . .

Mau left his home island to undergo a rite of passage to manhood. His child soul would remain behind on the other island, and his manhood soul was waiting for him at home. But on his return, the world is changed. A giant tsunami wave washes away his people and he is left, the soul survivor of his nation, somewhere between boyhood and manhood, without a soul, to try and rebuild. To succeed he will have to rely on ancient customs and beliefs, while at the same time learning to challenge the past, and question the superstitions that have guided his people. He rises to the amazing challenge. With the help of Daphne, a girl from across the world who is the soul survivor of a ship wreck left on his island, he overcomes the challenges and discovers a truth about his people which turns the world upside down.

I greatly enjoyed this book and found it left  me with a positive uplifting mood when I read it. The character in the book faces a great and terrible challenge when his world is washed away, and even though he loses sight of his path to the future, he never stops moving forward, becoming the person he needs to be to face whatever comes. In addition to the challenges of surviving in his new surroundings, he also faces a personal inner struggle to reconcile the beliefs and superstitions of his people with the tragedy that befell them. How could the Gods they honor and offer food sacrifices to, make this wave? He refuses to feel “grateful” for being spared when everyone was not and holds his ancestors and Gods accountable for the tragedy. This story offers a wonderful challenge to religion. It recognizes the importance of belief and ritual in helping someone deal with troubled times, and notes the practical benefits also. Properly disposing of your dead, and certain food prep rituals can prevent disease as well as provide emotional comfort. At the same time, it sharply points out the importance of continuing to learn and grow and challenge the world around you. A society deeply mired in the past and beholden to ancient ritual and superstition can stagnate and fail to advance in learning and technology, or even regress.

Terry Pratchett diverges from his Discworld series on this one, but manages to weave a compelling tale of adventure, survival and mystery. Add some philosophy, ghosts, cannibals, buried treasure, mutineers, sharks and beer you have a truly enjoyable read for Young Adults and Adults alike.

Nation

As of May 2008, Owners of the Nintendo Wii game console can now download free game demos to their Nintendo DS game system at home just like the Download Service available at some stores. The service is available as part of the new free Nintendo Channel on the Wii. You can purchase the Nintendo Channel (for free) through the Wii Shop Channel. The Nintendo Channel features Wii game videos and trailers. To find the DS Download service you will need to agree to allow “Data-Sharing” service that sends data on what games you play to Nintendo (Under Nintendo Channel settings, Data-Sharing Settings). Then go to “Find Titles for You” and the bottom choice will be “DS Download Service”. If the option is grayed out as unavailable, then you have not agreed to the data sharing. Once in the DS Download Service you will see a list of available demos, some of which appear to be permanent, some of which seem to be available only temporarily. I have noticed the “Distribution Ends:” date they give is not always accurate and the list does not update until at least a day after that date. After you download a game you can keep it on your DS until it is powered off. If you want to save a demo to play the next day, just close the DS to suspend it without turning it off (and consider plugging it in since the battery will slowly drain in this suspended state).

Since I have been unable to find a list on the web of what demos are available, I will post the new list on this blog as they change (which is usually a day or two after the “ends” date).
Enjoy!

Click here for the current list of available downloads

Here is an interesting video showing a Eurocopter EC135 being used for maintenance operations on giant offshore wind turbines in the UK. Gives a good perspective on the massive size of these turbines. Around here they work on land based turbines by just opening the door at their base and climbing up a bunch of stairs. These guys in the video appear to be part mechanic, part coast guard helicopter rescue diver. Considering how often these things usually need maintenance (at least monthly I believe) this looks like it could get expensive fast and reveals a potential downside to the otherwise excellent idea of offshore turbines which I have always believed in. Enjoy the video, although I recommend muting the poorly chosen soundtrack.

From Flight Global via Gizmodo

The Muppets have apparently been  making a come back on YouTube. I have always loved the Muppets, from watching them in prime time decades ago, to sharing them with  my son on DVD, they are classic family entertainment true style and the list of big name celebrities that were guest hosts is truly staggering. Here are two delicious Muppet version of classical music to enjoy with your family and loved ones.

Ode to Beeker




Classical Chicken



These put a new light on all the new solo acapella chorus YouTube videos out there recently.

[BoingBoing]

Here is another cool little drumming robot. Named the Lil’ Drum and Bass Bot, this robot has his own little pill bottle drum to beat on with two sticks, or can be converted to one larger stick to play out riffs on objects it detects in its path. It even has its own little tone generator music maker to accompany itself. A nicely executed and clever idea. His little writeup on the project includes some development information and reveals that he spent about $50 and 16 hours on this project which is uses a Picaxe 28×1 controller.



[Let’s Make Robots via Make via Gizmodo

Previously on ObserveTheBanana: Little Drummer Bot